1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of blanking circuits, and particularly to blanking circuits for use with digital input signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many electronic circuits provide digital signals to following stages, which act in response to them. In some instances there can be noise on the digital signal; for example, the output of a comparator may contain noise if its inputs are noisy. This noise can cause unexpected and erratic behavior in a following stage that is switched by the comparator output.
When the digital signal is produced by a comparator, input-referred hysteresis is often employed to prevent noisy inputs from affecting the output. However, in the presence of a large amount of switching noise, the hysteresis needed may be so large as to significantly affect the magnitude of the input voltage swings, and hence the overall circuit performance.
A circuit is needed that can prevent noise found in a digital signal from being propagated to a following stage, without unduly affecting the overall performance of the circuit.